(Trinidad Guardian) Acting Police Commissioner Mc Donald Jacob says there is no policy in the T&T Police Service to target or “hunt” young Afro-Trinidadians.
He was responding to a statement from the Emancipation Support Committee (ESCTT), which called on him to investigate the activities of the Port-of-Spain Task Force.
The Committee issued a release earlier this week, calling on Jacob to investigate the Task Force for “hunting” young men in the Gonzales community. The ESCTT said residents had complained of the Task Force carrying out a “regime of intimidation” after the police-involved shooting of Celestine Richards on August 19.
“That is not the policy of the Police Service. However, if persons commit crimes and they are wanted by the police, the law provides the avenue for us to make all efforts to arrest the person. But there is no policy in the Police Service to hunt down anyone in any illicit way,” Jacob said yesterday.
However, he said he had spoken to ESCTT director of Regional and Pan African Affairs Khafra Kambon over the phone and assured him that these allegations will be investigated.
Jacob said he will not hesitate to take action if the allegations are proven to be true. In the interim, he is vowing to work with the ESCTT in the affected communities.
“We are setting up a meeting sometime next week for us to meet and talk further to see how the Emancipation Support Committee and the police service can work hand in hand to make some positive changes in east Port-of-Spain and other areas, working together as a team,” Jacob said.
He said he has also been ensuring officers receive the training they need to deal with the public.
“We have been doing the training of our officers, not just in the physical aspects of law enforcement and dealing with the use of force policy and how they’re handled but also dealing with the socio and psychological aspects of policing,” Jacob said.
He said this includes reducing incidents of labelling, stereotyping and “unnecessary profiling.”
“Because we know the fact that there is something called self-fulfilling prophecy and if you label individuals as criminals, and treat them as such, they may, in fact, at the end of the day, act out that way.”